Candied Orange Peels | Homemade Candied Peels Recipe

I love citrus flavor and I love adding them in my recipes specially in my bakes, don't they add a punch to the dish? Here are candied orange peels, where peels of oranges are boiled or cooked in sugar syrup to make it a sweet candy kind and these make your bakes fabulously citrusy! When you bite into those tit bits you get the bursting orange flavor that makes you feel refreshed. You can simply use them in making fruit cakes, muffins, meringues, and cookies or simply as a candy. I have also shared a pictorial on how to peel oranges easily to make the process easier. Its fun to make candied peels and with Christmas nearing making some homemade candied peels will come in handy :) 

INGREDIENTS

Makes 60 grams of candied peels

Total Preparation Time – 60 to 80 minutes (plus overnight drying)

1. Orange peels – From two fruits (nearly 45 grams)
2. Sugar – 250 grams
3. Water – 35 to 40 ml 

PREPARATION METHOD

• Take the orange peels and cut it into small strips of ¼ inch thickness. (remove the white pith if any)

Here's a pictorial on how to easily peel an Orange!

 How To Make Candied Peels

• Then place a pan on flame and add the orange peels and fill with water so that the peels get immersed well. Then wait until it boils nicely. Remove from flame drain peels and discard the water, wash the peels well and again pour some more water and boil the same way. Then drain and discard water. Do this process thrice to remove the bitterness from the orange peels. 
• Then remove the peels and wash well.

• Place a pan on flame and add sugar and 40 ml of water and stir well. Wait until it dissolves.

• Then add the orange peels and do not stir. Just place on a very low flame and cook until the peels turn nearly transparent. (need not stir in between just leave it undisturbed)

• It will seem glossy when finished. It may take 20 minutes or more depending on the size of the strips. 
• Then remove the peels from the sugar syrup and place on a pan lined with parchment paper. Leave it overnight in room temperature to dry well.
• It will harden well when dried. Then chop them into smaller pieces or store them. Use for making cakes specially fruit cakes, cookies, muffins or just use like a mouth freshening candy. 

TIP 1: You can make the same with lemon peels and also with mosambi peels. Follow the same procedure. 

TIP 2: I have used the blanching technique to remove bitterness from peels, doing this process three times gets rid of the bitter flavor completely. you can reduce it to a single time blanching if you like a tad bit of bitterness in your candied peels.